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This is the single largest decision on this list. A supply line that fails with the water on runs at full pressure until somebody closes a valve — several hundred litres an hour, for as long as it takes anyone to arrive. Shutting off and draining removes the mechanism entirely. If you are keeping it on, visit frequency is doing all the work of limiting the damage.
Closing the main leaves water sitting in the lines. That water can still freeze and split a pipe — you simply avoid the continuous flow afterwards. For a winter absence of more than a few weeks, draining is the more complete version: close the main, then open fixtures from the top of the house downward.
Several Canadian insurers require either maintained heat or a shut-off-and-drained system during heating-season absences, and some treat those as alternatives while others do not. Ask your broker which applies before you choose, because the answer also sets your visit cadence.
A sprinkler system must stay charged. If the property has one, the water plan needs to account for it separately — this is a conversation with a plumber and, usually, with your insurer, not something to work out on departure morning.
The heating loop is separate from the domestic water supply and holds its own fluid. Shutting one down without the proper procedure risks damaging the system. If heat is going off or the water is being drained, get advice specific to the system before you leave.
Typical residential tanks last eight to twelve years, and end-of-life failure is a continuous leak rather than a dramatic burst. On a property that will be empty for months, replacing an old tank before you go is cheaper than discovering it failed in week three.
Poly-B fails at fittings, without warning, and degradation is internal so a system behaves normally right up until it does not. Where it is present, shutting off the water during an absence is a meaningfully stronger precaution than usual. It also affects coverage — some insurers decline, some require replacement, some apply restrictions.
Homes built roughly 1985 to 1997 in Alberta frequently have poly-B supply piping: grey flexible pipe, usually visible in the mechanical room or basement ceiling, often stamped PB2110. A plumber or inspector can confirm it in minutes, and the answer changes both your water plan and your insurance position.
Original clay tile sewer lines under mature boulevard trees are the norm in older Calgary communities, and root intrusion is invisible until the line backs up. A vacancy is the easiest time to scope it, and a line replacement under a mature front yard runs well into five figures.
This combination is the one that produces burst pipes. Turning heating off is only safe once the supply is shut and the system properly drained. If the water is staying on, the heating needs to stay on too.
The thermostat sits in a hallway, close to the warmest circulating air in the building. Plumbing runs through exterior walls, unheated garages, basement ceilings and corner bathrooms, which can be 5–10 °C colder. Around 15 °C is the commonly recommended floor for that reason — and if your policy names a figure, that one governs.
High-efficiency furnaces vent through a sidewall pipe a metre or two above grade. Snow drifting, chinook meltwater refreezing, or frost building at the termination will shut the furnace down on a safety — and it is one of the most common heating failures in Alberta vacant properties precisely because nobody is there to clear it.
Garages are usually unheated and share a wall — and often plumbing — with heated space. Rooms above an attached garage are among the most common places pipes freeze in an otherwise adequately heated house. Worth naming as a specific checkpoint rather than trusting one thermostat reading.
A sump only helps if it runs, the float is free, the discharge line is unobstructed and unfrozen, and the power is on. A frozen discharge is a common Alberta failure: the pump runs, the water cannot leave, and it comes back. Test it before you go and have the sump area checked at every visit.
Without a sump, everything depends on grade and downspouts moving water away from the foundation. Extend downspouts at least two metres out, clear window wells, and have grade and pooling looked at specifically during spring melt.
The same litre of water that means a mop on bare concrete means drywall, flooring, insulation, trim and contents in a finished space — plus the mould that follows if it sits. It is the main reason to shorten visit intervals rather than lengthen them.
Overland water and sewer backup are typically separate endorsements rather than part of base coverage, and availability varies by location and claims history. Confirm what you actually hold before an extended absence, and prioritise spring drainage observation.
Walkout basements and stepped lots put a door and windows at the low point of the property. Window wells, the grade immediately above the walkout, and where downspouts actually discharge all matter more here than on a flat lot.
Having one is a genuine advantage during a surcharge event, but they require inspection and cleaning to function. Worth confirming it has been serviced rather than assuming it is doing its job.
Water left in an irrigation system through an Alberta winter cracks backflow devices, valves and lines. Blowout uses compressed air at pressures that damage systems when done wrong, so it goes to a qualified provider — book it in August or September, because they fill up.
Leaves block gutters in autumn, which in a freeze-thaw climate means meltwater held at the roof edge rather than drained away. Wet spring snow brings branches down. Clearing gutters before winter and having deadwood removed before you leave prevents most of it.
Wet spring snow is several times heavier than dry midwinter snow for the same depth, and low-slope sections hold it rather than shedding it. Drainage on those sections also blocks more easily. Ground-level observation after heavy snowfalls is worth adding to the checklist.
Well pumps, pressure tanks and septic systems have no alarm and no neighbour to hear them. Add to that a long driveway that has to be cleared before anyone can reach the property at all, and rural vacancy needs its own plan rather than a suburban one.
A supply failure in your unit goes down into the units below and into common property. Alberta condominium bylaws frequently allow the corporation to charge its insurance deductible back to the unit where the loss originated, and those deductibles are often in the tens of thousands. Read your bylaws and confirm you carry deductible chargeback coverage.
Fobs, elevator bookings, visitor parking, concierge procedures and after-hours entry all vary by building, and some corporations require an owner to register anyone attending on their behalf.
Trap water evaporates within weeks in an unused fixture, faster in dry winter air. Once the seal is gone, sewer gas enters the building — this is the single most common reason a long-empty house smells wrong, and it takes thirty seconds a fixture to prevent.
A brief outage nobody knows about is enough. The contents thaw, decompose, and produce contamination and odour that can need professional cleaning. For an absence of months, emptying and switching off — doors propped open — is the safer choice.
Plant instructions are specific and easy to get wrong. Record location, frequency, quantity and anything unusual per plant or group, rather than leaving it to judgement — and ask for photo confirmation after watering.
Additional bathrooms and kitchens mean more traps to dry out and more supply lines to fail, plus an extra entrance to secure. If the suite is occupied while the main house is empty, the arrangement needs to be clear with your insurer as well.
Batteries flatten, tyres flat-spot, and rodents nest in engine bays over a long winter. A vehicle also sits outside during hail season. Decide whether it is being stored, started periodically, or moved before you go.
That is not automatically a problem — it means the visit interval is your entire detection mechanism, and should be set accordingly. Connected temperature and leak sensors shorten detection substantially and are inexpensive, though they only tell you something is wrong; somebody still has to go.
A leak sensor tells you water reached the floor near the sensor. It cannot close a valve, clear a furnace vent, photograph a ceiling stain or let a plumber in. Treat what you have as an early-warning layer on top of a visit schedule, not instead of one.
It is the one piece of equipment that acts rather than reports — closing the supply when it detects flow that looks like a leak. Confirm it is armed and that whoever attends knows it is there and how it behaves.
It works until the week they are away, or the day something needs a decision at 9 PM, or the moment something goes wrong and they feel responsible. Keep the arrangement — it is genuinely valuable — but do not let it be the only thing standing between the property and a month of undetected water.
Accumulated mail, an uncleared walk, unchanging lights, untended grass and bins that never move are the cues that mark a house as empty. Each is cheap to remove and together they matter more than most security spending.
Most Canadian policies contain conditions relating to vacancy or extended absence — required heat, a drained system, sometimes a stated check interval, sometimes notification. They vary between insurers and between products, and the only version that governs is the one in your policy. Ten minutes on the phone, answered by email.
Four months later nobody can reliably say what was already like that. A dated baseline is the reference point for every later question, and it is impossible to reconstruct after the fact. It costs half an hour.
An old gate valve that has not moved in fifteen years may not close, and forcing it creates the emergency you were preventing. Find it, test it gently, photograph its location, and make sure whoever attends knows where it is.
A leak found at 2 AM should not wait for an email across time zones. Set a written standing limit for urgent protective work — the kind that stops damage getting worse — and keep elective repairs coming back to you.
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